Trabuco Hills assistant takes over at Tustin

Winter Welz was in his first season as an assistant coach at Trabuco Hills before leaving to take the head coach position at Tustin, his alma mater. COURTESY OF TRABUCO HILLS FOOTBALL.

Winter Welz, a first-year assistant football coach at Trabuco Hills, has left the Mustangs to become head coach at Tustin, his alma mater.

“At the end of the day I had to go with what my heart said,” Welz said. “It was a tough decision but it was one I had to make.”

The position opened up over the weekend when Tustin head coach Greg Gano resigned four games into his first season with the Tillers. Tustin has started the season 0-4 after going 12-1 last year.

“We knew it would be tough for him to leave Trabuco but it was his chance to be a head coach and … it was kind of a dream job for him,” Tustin athletic director and former head coach Myron Miller said.

“He’s a great, great young coach,” Miller said. “He gives us a chance to maybe turn this around.”

A 2003 graduate of Tustin, Welz was an All-League linebacker for the Tillers before becoming an All-Conference defensive lineman at Orange Coast College. He returned to Tustin in 2006 as an assistant coach and was on staff there until this season.

Welz was a candidate for the Tustin head coaching job during the offseason before Gano was selected. Gano replaced Miller, who spent 18 years coaching the Tillers. Miller will be defensive coordinator on Welz’s staff.

“He was one of the two guys we wanted last year,” Miller said.

This season, Welz came to Trabuco Hills to work with head coach Scott Orloff, who he played for at Orange Coast College.

With the Mustangs, Welz was in charge of the offensive line and run game.

The news of Welz’s move came as a surprise to Orloff, who found out Friday morning when he walked into his office and Welz was waiting there to tell him.

“You know, we’re obviously going to miss him, he was doing a great job, I coached him at Orange Coast, he did a great job with our kids, the kids enjoyed him,” Orloff said.

Welz said he didn’t want to leave the Trabuco Hills players in a bad situation and “wanted them to know it was nothing they did,” but as a Tustin alumnus and still knowing all the players from his time on staff there, Welz felt compelled to help turn their situation around.

He emphasized that Tustin is not just somewhere he wants to be a year or two before moving on, but a job he hopes to have for a long time.

“If it was any other school I would have waited,” Welz said. “If anybody else would have come calling it would have been ‘wait until the end of the year to talk to me.’”

Winter Welz was in his first season as an assistant coach at Trabuco Hills before leaving to take the head coach position at Tustin, his alma mater. COURTESY OF TRABUCO HILLS FOOTBALL.
Greg Gano resigned from his position as Tustin head coach after just four games. ROD VEAL, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Greg Gano resigned after just four games as Tustin head coach.

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